A human teenager raced through the icy landscapes of a region made completely of ice, leaving a trail of green energy behind him as he ran. The rate at which he sprinted across the land was incredible, covering in seconds what normal people would take hours to cover.
He looked behind him and saw a manta ray-like creature flying behind him. "Shoot," he muttered. "They've gotten faster."
He stopped and sprang off of the ground, jumping high into the air and landing on top of the unfortunate manta. He whirled out a Japanese daito and stabbed the manta in what looked like an eye, then jumped off. Moments later, the creature exploded.
The teenager landed next to an outcropping and got under cover. He tapped his bracer, and a hologram projected itself into the air. He grimaced when he saw that his life points were running low.
"I've been virtualized too long," he muttered. "Too bad I can't get out of attack range for long enough to get to a tower, and my regenerative powers don't seem to work here."
He peeked out from the outcropping, and immediately pulled his head back when a laser bolt tore through the air to hit it.
"Great. This is definitely not good." The teen had seen a lot of monsters waiting to attack him. He couldn't make a run for the tower without getting shot in the process, and he already had been shot enough that one more would completely obliterate him.
Usually, people that got materialized into Lyoko would de-virtualize when their Life Points were reduced to zero. That wasn't the case here. For reasons that will be revealed later, he wouldn't be able to reform in the real world after getting de-virtualized.
The teen checked the number of monsters again, and ducked behind his cover. There was now only one choice.
The teen held up his hand and called for as much power as he could possibly muster without killing himself. He then unleashed it in a powerful pulse of energy that destroyed all the monsters in one blast. The pulse then continued on to race through the Internet to search for one computer.
The teenager watched the energy go, then crumpled to the ground. It's all up to you now, he thought before passing into unconsciousness.
Jeremy Belpois of Kadic Academy was returning to his room in the school dorm. Ever since XANA had been shut down for good, he and his friends had been able to enjoy a regular life. Since they didn't need to save the world all the time, they had time to work on other things.
Jeremy opened his door and walked in, closing it behind him. He set his bag down and was just about to start on his homework when suddenly his computer beeped.
"Huh?" Usually a beep meant a message, but Jeremy didn't usually get any e-mail messages directly to his computer.
"What's this?" He found a message on his screen.
" 'To Jeremy Belpois, Aelita Schaeffer, Ulrich Stern, Odd Della Robbia, Yumi Ishiyama, and William Dunbar...' " Jeremy felt his insides turn to ice. All of them were part of the same group, the group that had been working to save the world from XANA less than a year ago.
" 'You will not like what this message has to say...' "
Ulrich Stern and Odd Della Robbia were chatting in the room that they shared together when suddenly Ulrich's phone rang.
"Huh?" Ulrich picked it up and answered it. "Hello?"
"Ulrich, it's Jeremy."
"Hey, Jeremy. What's up?" Ulrich asked.
"Nothing good." Ulrich could detect grim urgency in Jeremy's voice.
"What's the matter, Jeremy?"
"Come to my room now and I'll tell you. Bring Odd, he needs to be here too."
"Alright. See you in a bit." Ulrich turned off his phone.
Odd was looking a bit worried. "What's the matter Ulrich? Why're you so grim?"
"I don't know much, Odd, but I have a bad feeling that something bad is going on."
Odd got up. "So what did Jeremy say, exactly?"
"To go to his room. So we'll go there." Ulrich replied.
"Sounds like a plan."
Aelita Schaeffer heard a knock at the door. She got up and opened it to see Jeremy.
"Oh, hi Jeremy!" she said, surprised to see him at this time of day.
"Hi Aelita." Jeremy's face was unusually serious.
"Is something wrong?" Aelita asked, worried.
"Yeah. Something is really wrong." Jeremy said. "I'm calling the gang together, because I just got a message."
"About what?" Aelita and Jeremy were now walking through the halls to Jeremy's room.
"You're not going to like it." Jeremy warned her, "And I want to tell all of you at once."
"Alright. Should I call Yumi over?" Aelita asked.
"Yeah. It would be great if you could." Jeremy said, pulling out his phone and dialing William's number. "Hey, William? It's me, Jeremy."
"Jeremy? What's the matter?"
"I need to show you something. Come to my room ASAP."
"Is it something to do with Lyoko?"
"Yeah. It has everything to do with Lyoko."
Aelita was listening, and was now very worried. Whatever it was that Jeremy wanted to show them all, it couldn't be good.
Aelita waited until someone picked up the phone at the other end. "Hello?" she heard.
"Yumi? It's Aelita."
"Aelita? What're you doing, calling at this time of day?"
"Jeremy's calling together the gang. We're meeting at his room right now."
"Alright. I'll head over there right now."
"Be careful Yumi." Aelita warned, and then turned off her phone. "Yumi's coming."
"Good. It shouldn't be much longer, then."
When Yumi arrived, the others were already there.
"Okay, first of all, Jeremy, I'd like to ask you this: what're we doing here?" William asked.
"Yeah, what's this all about?" Odd asked.
"Earlier today, I got a message on my computer that was addressed to all of us."
Aelita was puzzled. "All of us?"
Jeremy nodded. "All of us."
"What did it say?" Ulrich asked.
Jeremy turned on the screen, then pulled up the message itself. "See for yourself."
The gang crowded around the screen for a look. And they were not liking what they were seeing.
To Jeremy Belpois, Aelita Schaeffer, Ulrich Stern, Odd Della Robbia, Yumi Ishiyama, and William Dunbar,
My name is Aeron Solo. I apologize for contacting you in this manner, but I have no choice. I understand that your lives have been troubled by the AI program XANA in the past, and you are not eager to repeat your experiences. In that case, you will not like what this message has to say.
Lyoko has been reactivated, and XANA is at large. I have been stopping XANA's attempts to destroy the world for weeks now, before they can get out of hand. I have been virtualized for far too long, however, and my lifepoints are running dangerously low. I exhausted all of my power to defeat all of XANA's monsters at once. I can only send you this message and pray that you will arrive in time. A tower has been activated, and I can barely move at present. I only have so long before XANA materializes monsters to destroy me. Be warned: Lyoko is no longer what you remember it to be.
Jeremy waited until he was sure that everyone was finished reading. "Well? What do you think?"
William's face had a haunted look to it. No one needed an explanation as to why this was. William had been possessed by XANA for a very long time, and as such he was nervous about what this boded for him.
"Jeremy, I think this is a bit farfetched. Are you sure that this isn't some prank?" Yumi asked.
"No. The sender was unidentified, and my computer can't trace the message. It's almost as if the internet itself created it and sent it here."
"Well, there's only one way to find out, isn't there?" Ulrich asked, standing up.
Jeremy nodded. "We have to go to the factory. There's no other choice."
Aelita stood up. "Well, what are we waiting for?"
All got up and ran to the factory.
Elsewhere...
An AH-64D Apache Longbow was stationed on a helicopter pad. The helicopter was just off the production lines, and was ready for action.
A spectre floated like smoke out of an electrical plug. It floated up to the helicopter and slipped inside. Moments later, the helicopter activated without warning.
"Huh?" The man on duty noticed the helicopter activating. "Hey! Hold on!"
He ran over, but stopped when the helicopter activated its rotors and flew into the air, and turned around to face him. He took one look at the weapons, and quickly dove for cover.
He was just in time. The Apache had opened fire with its missiles, and was now wrecking havoc.
"Mayday! Mayday! The Apache is going wacko! There's no one in it, but it's shooting up the base!" the soldier shouted into his radio.
The soldier's comrades heard, picked up their weapons and headed to the pad. They came just in time to see the helicopter launch another missile and then take off into the night sky.
The soldier peeked out from behind his cover and watched it go. "I think we got a major problem on our hands."